Welsh-Loveman bleeding Carolina blue

Thursday

Aug 30, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 30, 2007 at 4:42 PM

When decision time came, there really wasn't one to be made. Monica Welsh-Loveman knew she was meant to be a Tar Heel. She knew before most high schoolers start sending out college applications. She bled Carolina blue when she was in middle school.

Andy Vogt/Daily News staff

When decision time came, there really wasn't one to be made.

Monica Welsh-Loveman knew she was meant to be a Tar Heel.

She knew before most high schoolers start sending out college applications. She bled Carolina blue when she was in middle school. And by the time she entered her senior year, her relationship with the University of North Carolina made it impossible to go anywhere else.

"It was kinda Carolina all the way," said Welsh-Loveman, a Wellesley native who just began her freshman year as one of the Tar Heels' four goalkeepers on the women's soccer team. "The whole Tar Heel fever and the alumni, it's such a big following."

Going to a school with big-time athletics was always a top priority. But playing on one of those big-time teams? It may have been just a dream until recently for a player who didn't start at Wellesley until her senior year.

So far in the preseason, however, the Tar Heels' staff has liked what it's seen.

"We evaluated her during (one of our summer camps) and we felt she'd be an excellent addition," Tar Heels coach Anson Dorrance said. And Dorrance would know - he's a seven-time national Coach of the Year and has led UNC to each of its 19 NCAA championships.

But it was Chris Ducar, North Carolina's goalkeeping coach, who sparked Welsh-Loveman's love of Chapel Hill. Back in 2001, when the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was first starting, a call went out to the community to house players on the Boston Breakers, since they were training nearby at Babson College.

Welsh-Loveman's family volunteered, and they were chosen to house Tracy Ducar, Chris' wife and a former All-American goalie with the Tar Heels.

That evolved into a relationship with UNC and, each summer, Welsh-Loveman attended summer camps in Chapel Hill while developing as a goalkeeper for the Boston Renegades, her club team.

"Youth soccer and youth basketball has taken up all our lives other than work," said her father, Gary. "That's what we do, run around and go to soccer games. Like a lot of parents, it's been our major avocation."

But she didn't start for Wellesley coach Nancy Foot until her senior year, with incumbent goalie Emily Toomey getting the nod. That one year was plenty of time to showcase her skills.

Welsh-Loveman led the Bay State Conference with a 0.72 goals against average and 12 shutouts, helping the Raiders to the Division 2 South final as a No. 16 seed and earning a spot on the Daily News All-Star team.

For Foot, it wasn't a shock, considering the training she had with the Renegades.

"It's really nice when you don't even have to think about the position, knowing she was always going to be there," Foot said. "She was used to being in high-pressure situations."

Welsh-Loveman has now moved into an environment where the pressure can't be measured with your ordinary barometer. Playing on a team that's one of the most decorated in all of collegiate athletics comes with incredibly lofty expectations. And one of the areas that Dorrance stresses most is fitness.

There's a series of 10 tests that all players are required to pass, and all freshmen are sent a packet early in the summer, letting them know what's expected of them.

"Fitness is something I struggle with," Welsh-Loveman said. "Just being a goalie, (I've) never really had to do the fitness they expect here."

"We always want to continue to raise the bar - strength, vertical jump development. It's a bar we continue to raise higher and higher," Dorrance said. "She's accepted it gracefully and with humor. I remember teasing her that she's so married to the stadium steps that they're like brother and sister."

In addition to the increased workout regimen, Welsh-Loveman was initially startled by the caliber of play, even in practice. Whereas there are only a couple dangerous players to key on in the Bay State Conference, "there are 18 players here that can curve the ball into the upper nine."

Welsh-Loveman is one of UNC's two freshman goalkeepers who will be fighting for playing time behind upperclassmen Anna Rodenbough and Ashlyn Harris. Game action will likely be at a minimum, and right now her mentality is to "just train and make everyone else better. It's what I'm here to do."

Stranger things have happened, however. As a freshman in 2005, Rodenbough was the No. 4 keeper on the depth chart, but moved into the starting role because of a rash of injuries.

And with Dorrance's penchant for playing multiple goalies during games, moving up the ranks isn't out of the realm of possibility.

"I've been disturbed at what a disadvantage goalkeepers are at, compared to field players," he said. "If two goalkeepers are relatively close, you should play them both, so there's nice chemistry on the team. We use the regular season as a competition.

"If you continue to develop and prove yourself, you know you have a chance to play. With us playing two a game, it doubles the opportunity."

It's a competition, sure, but a friendly one at that. Welsh-Loveman is rooming this fall with her freshman counterpart, Amanda Tucker, and said the two returning goalies are nothing but helpful in developing the younger keepers.

"They really want us to get to that caliber, and all the girls are so good in encouraging when you do something right, and letting you know when you do something wrong," she said.

There's still work to be done, but from what Dorrance has seen so far, Welsh-Loveman at least has the natural ability to succeed.

"The thing I love is her hands are excellent," he said. "If the ball hits her in the hands, it's like glue. Obviously, for a goalkeeper, it's invaluable.

"(And) we're on a field designed for men, the ball's designed for men, the goal is designed for men. The biggest difference is the challenge the goalkeeper has. When you have a goalkeeper like Monica, she moves her feet well."

In all likelihood, this fall will be more of a learning experience for her. But it's one that she'll be sharing with her family - her mom, Kathy, will be in attendance for several of the Tar Heels' games, and her family was in attendance for the starters/reserves game earlier this summer. Watching his daughter run out in a UNC uniform, Gary admits, was "pretty cool."

As for her own hopes? Well, that answer should be pretty obvious.

"I'd like to win a national championship," Welsh-Loveman said. "But just learning from the players, just being around makes you better, not just as a player but as a person."

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